


Night Walks

by garbage_dono



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: F/M, First Kiss, Melancholy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-06
Updated: 2019-01-06
Packaged: 2019-10-05 18:10:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17329940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/garbage_dono/pseuds/garbage_dono
Summary: Shortly before his meeting with his father, Lotor and Ven'tar take a quiet nighttime walk together.





	Night Walks

**Author's Note:**

> First time making a foray into this pairing. It's just too deliciously painful not to try. ;A;

“You seem quiet,” Ven’tar said, so softly he barely heard her over the sound of the waves rolling up on the shore. He could feel her eyes on him even with his gaze fixed on the water, tracing rippling constellations reflected on its surface. Beside him, Ven’tar stopped, and there was a hint of a smile in her voice as she added, “You’re not usually very talkative to begin with when you don't need to be, but still.”

It was a smile that he wished he could mirror, but he couldn’t quite manage it. Even to placate her. It made her own fade. Tragic.

“Lotor…is…is something wrong?”

“No,” he finally said. Not yet, at least. But that could all change in an instant. “No, not…not wrong, really. Everything is going according to plan. That’s the problem, I’m afraid.”

_Back straight, hands clasped, voice steady. Don’t let her see your fear._

She took a step toward him, sand crunching under her heels as she did, and he caught a glimpse of yellow glow in the corner of his eye before she spoke again: “Something’s bothering you.” It was a statement, not a question. She already knew, and when he turned to look at her fully, it was clear why. Her antennae were glowing gold in the soft evening light.

That damn talent of hers – it made it impossible for him to hide.

The light faded a tick later, and she stumbled backwards a few steps with her head hung low. “I’m sorry…I know it’s rude of me to…to pry like that. And after I said I wouldn’t-“

“No.” The word came out too insistent, too needy. _Bury that impulsiveness before it gets you into trouble._ “Please, Ven’tar. As empaths, your people have been given a gift few could ever possess. I would be a fool to insist you squander it.”

A deep verdant flush crept across her cheeks as she stood before him, considering her next words with her brow knit in concentration. There was something endearing about that face…the way her antennae twitched when she was deep in thought. “I’d never intrude on your thoughts without permission,” she told him. “But still…if something is wrong, I’d hope…I’d hope you could tell me what it was. Maybe I could help you.” Her smile was back again – thank the gods. “That’s part of what it means to work together, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” he said, and he finally managed a smile of his own. “Yes, I suppose you’re right.”

He turned to face the water again. There was something calming about it watching it lap at his boots, not caring if they got wet. There were no beaches like this in deep space, and simulations only got so close to the real thing. It had been a long time since he’d felt an ocean breeze on his skin. Even longer since he’d gone for a quiet stroll in the moonlight like this.

This planet was full of new and beautiful things. And new and beautiful people.

“I’m due to report to my father in a movement’s time,” he told her, feeling Ven’tar’s hand brushing so close to his own and having the strangest urge to move and grasp it. For stability. For warmth. For a moment of connection, however short.

_Bury that impulsiveness._

He clasped his hands behind his back again.

Ven’tar followed suit, taking a step away as she turned to look out at the waves too. “Emperor Zarkon…how closely has he been following our cooperation?”

“He’s seen the hard numbers. This planet has become one of the most reliable sources of quintessence to the empire, and without a single uprising or plague or mass execution. That will get his attention. It will count for something.”

_Don’t let her see your fear._

“It has to.”

“It will.” Ven’tar’s voice shone with renewed confidence as she faced him, hands reaching out, folding around his own before he realized it was happening. He stared down at them, at her fingers curled against his knuckles. So warm… “It will count for _everything,_ Lotor. You’ve given us more than we could ever have imagined. You’ve saved us.”

_Warm…_

“I…I’ve only done the decent thing,” he said.

_Back straight, hands clasped-_

_Warm…so warm…_

Her smile was as inviting as her hands were, her eyes shining in the moonlight. “You’re the best of them, you know that?”

He swallowed. “Hardly.”

“You’ve never been told that before…have you?” How could a person speak so quietly and yet sound like their words were drowning out everything else? How could they look at him with such warmth in their eyes? When had she come so close? “Nobody has told you what a good heart you have.”

Her hands were still clasping his. Still so warm. “Galra don’t…Galra rarely say such things.”

“Well perhaps they should.”

_Back straight-_

“Perhaps you deserve to have somebody tell you as much.”

_Don’t let her see-_

“Perhaps you deserve to have somebody…show you…that they care.”

_Bury that impulsiveness._

“Words can only…well, they can only say so much, can’t they?” Her eyes were wide, searching, her antennae glowing a soft amber gold. And her hands…her hands were so incredibly, exquisitely warm.

Her lips were warmer.

The waver lapping against the shore, his heartbeat in his ears, the faraway hum and chip of nocturnal wildlife – it all drifted away like the tide. It left him with glorious quiet, focused everything on the feeling of her lips against his, her antennae tickling his forehead, her hands folded around his own.

It was silent and still. Like floating in deep space. But so much warmer. So much softer. So much sweeter.

When she pulled away, her eyes were wide and anxious. “I…I didn’t think I was going to…I just thought…”

Searching for an explanation, for an excuse, for an escape route. He knew the feeling well, and yet for the first time in a long time he didn’t feel the need to do the same. He let his hands wander, let them cup her jaw in his palms. “It’s alright,” he told her, so softly it barely felt like he was speaking at all. And her anxiety melted away along with his own. "Ven'tar, I...please."

Her arms wrapped around his shoulders, pulling him in, enveloping him in that warmth he’d forgotten he’d ever craved.

 _Bury that impulsiveness,_ the voice in his head insisted, and for the first time in his life, he bothered to answer it.

_No._


End file.
